Letter 1553: The vile and God-hated Zosimus dares to serve as priest — as you write with shock.
Do not let it hinder your course toward virtue, O blessed one, that the foul and lawless Zosimus dares to exercise the priesthood, as you wrote. Rather, let this very thing strengthen you all the more to believe that there assuredly is a judgment, in which to each will be allotted what is fitting. For if everyone here received what is due to them - some the rewards, others the requital - the doctrine of judgment would be superfluous. But since many base people prosper, while many diligent ones are passed over, this very thing produces the uproar; yet it ought to be what abolishes the uproar and the confusion, since to each will be rendered what befits him. For God, being just, would not have overlooked these things happening, unless He intended afterward to demand an accounting of words and deeds and thoughts, and to assign honors to some and punishments to others.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Μή σου, ὦ μακάριε, τὸν εἰς τὴν ἀρετὴν δρόμον τὸ μιαρὸν καὶ θέσμισή, ὡς γέγραψας, Ζώσιμον ἱερᾶσθαι τολμᾶν· ἀλλ' αὐτὸ τοῦτό σε μᾶλλον ῥωννύτω εἰς τὸ πιστεύειν πάντως εἶναι κρίσιν, ἐν ᾗ ἑκάστῳ τὸ πρόσφορον ἀπονεμηθήσεται. Εἰ γὰρ πάντες ἐνταῦθα ἀπελάμβανον τὰ προσήκοντα, οἱ μὲν τὰς ἀμοιβὰς, οἱ δὲ τάπείχειρα, περιττὸς ἦν ὁ τῆς κρίσεως λόγος. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ πολλοὶ μὲν φαῦλοι εὐημεροῦσι, πολλοὶ δὲ σπουδαῖοι παρευημεροῦνται, αὐτὸ τοῦτο τὸ θόρυβον ποιεῖ, τοῦ θορύβου καὶ τῆς ταραχῆς ὀφελει εἶναι ἀναιρετικόν, ὅτι ἑκάστῳ τὸ πρέπει ἀποδοθήσεται. Οὐ γὰρ ἂν δίκαιος ὢν ὁ Θεὸς ταῦτα περιεῖδε γινόμενα, εἰ μὴ ἔμελλε καὶ λόγων καὶ πράξεων καὶ ἐννοιῶν μετὰ ταῦτα ἀπαιτεῖν εὐθύνας· καὶ τοῖς μὲν τιμὰς, τοῖς δὲ τιμωρίας ὁρίζειν.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern isidore pelusium workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/PatrologiaGraeca
Related Letters
1. Your character and rank I have learned from my holy brothers and co-bishops, Urbanus and Novatus. The former of these became acquainted with you near Carthage, in the town of Hilari, and more recently in the town of Sicca; the latter at Sitifis.